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I’m generally
not one to get caught up in the latest ‘flavors’
no matter the source. I like to look into
things on my own and decide whether or not
I’m ‘into it’. I’ve
just never found myself to be a part of
the mob mentality. “Twilight”
was first introduced to me a couple of years
ago when dropping my stepson off at a bookstore.
He was meeting some friends who were waiting
for a book signing for author Stephenie
Meyer. It seems she was in town to sign
copies of her book, “Twilight –
Breaking Dawn.” I had never heard
of it, but my stepson told me it was part
of a series of ‘awesome’ vampire
books. This piqued my interest, in part
because I’m into all things horror…
but more because my stepson is NOT into
reading. Anything that caught his attention
might be worth checking out.
The first thing I did was visit the various
websites associated with the “Twilight”
series and found out all about the main
plot, which involved loner girl Bella and
her relationship with Edward… a vampire.
The first book introduced us to Bella as
she moved from sunny Arizona to drab and
dark Forks, Washington to live with her
father.
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As if going to a new school wasn’t bad
enough, she soon found herself obsessed with fellow
student Edward Cullen. Edward was somewhat pale,
but by her descriptions had the face and body
of a God. (Glad to see she wasn’t at all
shallow.) Edward was part of a family of teenagers
adopted by a local doctor and his wife, the adoption
part made all the more weird by the fact that
all of the members of the family shared this pasty
appearance.
That was good enough for me, so I tracked down
the audiobooks for all four books, and my wife
and I settled in over the next few weeks listening
to them in the car to and from work. We were very
quickly caught up in Bella and Edward’s
world, despite some of the teenage angst trappings.
Actually, my wife got really sucked in by the
angst but we both agreed that though we loved
Bella… she was an idiot. It took her far
too long to figure out what Edward was…
a fact that is exacerbated in the second book
when it takes her even longer to ‘figure
out’ her friend Jacob’s secret. But
Bella’s denseness aside, we both very much
enjoyed the story.
The movie for the first book came out, and I opted
to pass it up in theatres (at first) because I
was sure it would be disappointing. But even at
this point I did not realize what a phenomenon
it was until one day while I was in a Supervisor’s
meeting at my work. It seemed that out of our
8 person team, no less than 5 of us were into
the books (and audiobooks). After that, every
meeting started out with at least 5 minutes of
discussing the latest chapters, careful not to
give anything away to those who were not as far.
Once the discussion of the movie came up, I was
told that it was a fairly faithful adaptation,
albeit a bit truncated as are most adaptations
from book to screen.
Armed with that information, my wife and I took
my stepson and his girlfriend to the theatre to
see it for ourselves. Afterwards I agreed that
it was a really good adaptation and had kept most
of the spirit of the book, but it needed to be
longer. It did take a little bit to accept Kristen
Stewart as Bell and Robert Pattinson as Edward,
but only because we had preconceived notions of
what they should look like. Once we got past the
initial scenes, they settled into our imaginations
just fine as they did wonderful jobs with their
interpretations of the characters. I also had
a few problems with some of the effects, most
notably when we are shown what really happens
to vampires when they walk out in the sun. In
the book, this is a major change from the accepted
vampire lore, but its description is easy to swallow.
Seeing it on the big screen… well…
let’s just say all that glitters is not
gold.
That said, “Twilight” was not your
typical vampire movie. In many ways there was
little originality to it, but it did take a lot
of liberties with the vampire lore. There were
many changes from what most of us know... including
how to kill them. And the word used to describe
the Cullen family in terms of their diet, in order
to make them ‘good’ vampires, is kind
of a hoot. It definitely appealed to a younger
audience, as did the relationship as whole. I
do worry about the whole obsession part of Bella’s
side of the equation as it played in the movie.
In the book, you do get deeper into the feelings
that surround her obsession and they begin to
make sense. The movie was not allowed to delve
as deeply, making her obsession seem like little
more than an Emo girl crushing on a really gorgeous
guy. Still, that is not enough to completely knock
the movie. But the way it played out, it worked
better as a companion piece to the book as opposed
to a stand-alone movie.
This brings us to the night of November 18th...
and the very full screening of the first sequel,
“New Moon.” When my wife and I arrived
at the theatre we weren’t really prepared
for the immensely long line of adoring fans ready
and waiting to go in. I was thankful of being
able to bypass the line, making note of all of
the ‘Team Edward’, ‘Team Jacob’,
and ‘Edward and Bella Forever’ shirts
on display. My wife joked that she should have
worn her “... and Buffy Staked Edward...
the end” t-shirt. I mentioned she might
not have made it out alive if she had. This was
a rabid audience, and I was admittedly looking
forward to seeing it with them.
The mood inside the auditorium was festive, despite
there being only a handful of us to start. The
studio had brought in a local band to play, which
was very entertaining. Then of course once the
main audience started streaming in, the various
radio stations and website hosts began throwing
out t-shirts and the like. Nothing like watching
teenagers tackling each other to catch a shirt
to get you in the mood for a movie! Thankfully
nobody was hurt, it was all playful fun.
Then... the movie started...
A harvest moon fills the screen, slowly fading
to allow for the letters for “New Moon”
to appear. (I had to comment that at one point
the screen only said, “OON”, but I
was the only one that found that amusing.) The
audience burst into huge applause, only to be
quieted as Bella’s voice grabbed everyone’s
attention. From that point on, the experience
of watching “New Moon” ran the gamut
of silent rapture as the audience hung on every
word from the characters they had grown to adore
to VERY loud squeals from the women (and probably
a handful of men) in the audience every time one
of the male actors showed up on screen without
a shirt. Far from being annoying or embarrassing...
it was actually quite funny and only added to
our enjoyment of the movie.
Summit Entertainment made a wise choice when opting
to film the ‘Twilight’ series, in
that they are going with different directors with
each entry. Much like the Harry Potter franchise,
this should serve to keep the films from becoming
stale duplicates. This is already the case with
“New Moon” in that it is a much different
movie from the first. Aside from the addition
of bigger special effects... the look of the film,
the acting, the locations, even the music has
all taken a step up. Now this is not to say that
we have Academy Award winning performances here.
Truth be told, there are very few ‘good’
actors in the movie. The addition of Michael Sheen
and Dakota Fanning is another step up as the only
really strong actor from the first film was Billy
Burke (as Charlie – Bella’s dad).
Here at least Billy is in good company, even if
they don’t have any scenes together.
Both Stewart and Pattinson reprise their roles
admirably, and there is a definite sense of improvement
over their rather stilted acting from the first.
However, the improvement is still not enough to
elevate them fully into the range of believability.
I think a few more acting lessons, and a continuation
with the series will probably prove fruitful by
the time we hit the last film allowing for the
possibility of casting in additional roles in
the future. Fortunately, as ‘Twilight’
is really little more than an MTV style soap opera,
the performances are at least acceptable. (The
effects guys really need to work a little on Edward’s
make-up though... he still looks really goofy
when moving in slow motion.)
What “New Moon” does share with its
predecessor is a sense of rushing the story. In
order to keep the running time shorter (which
guarantees additional showings each day and higher
revenues), of course the story had to be truncated
a bit. Things moved a lot faster and key elements
had to be taken out. Again these did not serve
our main characters well, as again... both Bella
and Edward seem even shallower than they are in
the books. You never really get even small sense
that they are truly in love. Obsessed maybe...
but not in love. Jacob (Tayler Lautner) really
comes across as the most sincere of the trio,
and in the one similarity to the relationship
in the books, is the most used by Bella.
Speaking of Bella, there is a lot of talk that
she is supposed to be some kind of great role
model for young women. (WHAT?????) She’s
very strong and independent. (HUH????) It scares
me to think of ever falling for a woman like Bella.
She’s rather obnoxious and unfriendly, generally
only hanging out with her ‘friends’
when she wants something out of them, then drops
them at the drop of a hat. She is full of angst
and self-loathing. She wants to be with a dead
guy... and wants to BE dead so she can live with
him forever. She is obsessive and shallow, rarely
thinking about how her actions and reactions will
affect other people. Need I go on? This is truly
my only real complaint about the series is that
she is decidedly NOT someone girls should look
up to. However this is what makes the books so
much fun to read and the movies fun to watch...
she’s more screwed up than me.
(We now return you to the review of the movie...)
Director Chris Weitz does an admirable job of
bringing new effects to this installment, as the
werewolves look pretty darn good... in that heavy
CGI sort of way. They look cool and pretty much
match the description that is given to them in
the books, but there is no real sense that they
are... well... real. A few shots work well, the
rest of the time it looks like the actors are
working alongside realistic cartoons. But as is
the case with the acting overall and the fact
that these are not movies to take seriously, they
work well enough to move the story along. There
are, however a few bad cinematic choices made
that almost ruin the movie as a whole. I won’t
get into them all here, but the most blatant comes
during a look at one of the visions Alice (Ashley
Green) has of Bella becoming a vampire. We see
Edward running... no... frolicking is more like
it... in slow motion through the forest in slow
motion and he is joined from the side by Bella.
Both are wearing white, Bella’s dress flowing.
I might have thought it was just me, but howls
of laughter erupted in the theatre, even from
the most die-hard fans. It totally broke the otherwise
serious scene that it played over.
“New Moon” is probably not going to
appeal to hardcore horror fans, as it is still
a much more a twisted romance story aimed at teenagers.
However, I really did enjoy it overall (having
read the series) and would have to consider it
a ‘guilty pleasure.’ I am actually
very much looking forward to the next installment,
“Eclipse” which is promised to us
by next summer. The story goes in even newer directions
and has sequences that I’m hoping will offer
a little more serious interaction... and perhaps
a lot more blood. (Hey! It IS a vampire movie!).
It is being directed by David Slade, who brought
us the awesome “Hard Candy” (lots
of angst) and “30 Days of Night” (lots
of blood)... hmmm... shows promise!
Oh... and by the way? Color me ‘Team Jacob.’
Directed by: Chris Weitz
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor
Lautner, Billy Burke, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning
Studio: Summit
In Theaters: 11/20/2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
http://www.twilightthemovie.com
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